Ah, Skyrim. How many hours have I burned away on you already? And how many more await me? Only time will tell. While I could expound on the virtues of this game, that I've played it as much as I have since it arrived says enough. What I'm blathering about today is: for as pretty and in-depth, all-over questy sandboxy amazing Skyrim is, why is it yet again another buggy Bethesda game?
I tend to forget, somehow, just how many bugs Bethesda games ship with... until I'm playing the next one. Morrowind Game Of The Year Edition for the original XBox is a classic example of face-palm when it comes to just how extensive the bugs are. There are even quests that just stop because you'll never get the journal entry required either due to a total bug or one in which you literally had to kill creatures in a certain order and this was never, ever made clear nor did it make sense via gameplay (Spriggans in the Raven Rock quest chain, look it up, it's not an eyes-off spoiler if it'll break the dern game for not knowing). In the case of that quest specifically, if you saved over your other saved games (and you always should use multiple saves for the same character in a game like this in part because of the bugs) while wandering around trying to figure out what to do next, you were permanently screwed for the entire main plot of the expansion. Oblivion and Fallout 3 had their own problems, especially with crashing.
So, what's wrong with Skryim? Plenty. And I'm not even talking about the ridiculous AI. Let's face it, they call it Artificial Intelligence for a reason. Computers don't think like people, and the amount of man-hours you have to put into programming something that can think more strategically than "I see enemy, I run at enemy RAAAR" is staggering. Skyrim takes it to a point where enemies will use defensive abilities, and quite possibly try to use cover at times. Stuff like that. But if you stealth-kill a guy with an arrow, after his buddy runs around for a minute and can't find you, he'll be like, "Musta been the wind" or whatever and go back to lazing around by the corpse that... the wind killed.
So sure, the AI is ridiculous but whatever. I can live with that. It's the very, very basic gameplay bugs that irk me. Apparently Bethesda only really cares about its 360 sales, because the ads I saw for the game all said to preorder it for the 360... no mention of any other platform. The UI is obviously made for a console and PC gamers have much frustration with how unwieldy it is on PC. Could better keyboard or other controls have been assigned? Most likely. But I have the console version, so...
...I get to deal with issues like how when buying or selling something, the inventory list will swap items around randomly in the list, or swap where your "cursor" is and you can end up either buying or selling something you didn't want to. This. Is. Basic. UI. Coding. Did they not see this in beta? How is this an acceptable ship-with bug? Will it get fixed in a patch? Who cares, how the heck did it ship with that bug in the first place?
Placing items in the game is obnoxiously hard thanks in part to the game's physics engine, similar to the one in Oblivion in which I never did figure out how to pick up items (didn't know you could, once they were on the ground) until about a month ago watching someone else do it on YouTube. Nowhere in the game does it tell you how to do this. Morrowind was awesome for how you could place things... okay it got tricky if you wanted something at a certain angle, but at least it stayed put once it was down. Walking on a table full of dishes didn't send everything flying, you could walk on the table to place your items and everything would stay where it was.
And now with Skyrim, even if you've got an item or several placed where you want them, you can load back into your house later and they'll be where you first dropped them on the floor. From what I can tell, sometimes placing them again where they never should have moved from in the first place will fix the placement, but I've been back three times to [spoiler location] and two things I placed were back where they first fell and now one has completely vanished.
This is frustrating, yes. These are the common bugs. There's a much more rare one where you end up loading 20 feet forward from a door when a new area finishes loading, which is dangerous in dungeons and eye-rolling when you get temporarily stuck in a wall or a piece of furniture, but that one seems to fix itself after turning off the console (but not reloading a save if you die or the like). There's others I'm sure I'm forgetting at the moment. And let's not forget, this is another game that thinks gamers all have HDTVs and aren't having to walk up to their TV and squint to see what the text says. And there is a lot of text in this game, from quests details to item descriptions to backstory books to subtitles to...
Does it mean I'll chuck my copy of Skyrim in the trash? No. I'll keep playing it, and more than likely I'll continue to buy Bethesda games, but y'know, there comes a point. World of Warcraft did it with the stupid f-ing pandas. Bethesda can do it too, and they need to watch out. They have great games with tons of content and very memorable experiences, being tripped up by some pretty darn basic bug issues... and a few more complex ones. Complex I can understand, I guess... once upon a time you couldn't get away with bugs like this because the game was going on a cartridge or disk that would never change, and consoles did not have the ability to update game content via the internets. But the basic stuff? There's no call for that.
You're on notice, Bethesda... not that you probably care about one person whining on one of a billion blogs. From your ads, all you really cared about in this instance was 360 preorders. But hey, little people like me are your fanbase, we buy your games. We stop buying your games... it's over. So, please, at the very least, fix the basic bugs before you ship your games. And a(nother) Skyrim patch would be nice, if you can possibly be bothered to get around to it now that the cash nobody can get back is minting it up in your bank accounts.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Sims 3 for XBox 360: Just as addictive... with a side order of frustration
I've been playing Sims 3 for the XBox 360 and wow but does this game have issues. I'm going to go through what I figured out on my own plus a lot of what I had to search for online, and sometimes the correct answer was so hard to find that it's useful to consolidate all this into one post. Hopefully it'll be helpful to someone else. I'm going to set this up like a FAQ and hopefully search terms will lead people here looking for these answers. Not all of this is bugs, some of it is helpful tips or major problems I ran into that aren't helped by the tiny manual that comes with the game, nor the in-game Lessons database.
-- How do I control my Sim directly in Sims 3 for XBox 360?
You can't. This surprised me too, as I was so used to it from Sims 1 and 2 for the 360. Apparently, that method of direct control is console only and the PC versions have always been what Sims 3 is now. You direct the Sims with the green beam of light, cueing up tasks for them like you had the option to do in the other console games but this time it is the only control method. You get used to it, but I do still miss running around with the actual Sim, especially as the camera controls in Sims 3 can be a bit wonky (annoying when searching the ground for anything or trying to zoom in on something).
Also take note that your Sims are completely stupid when you leave them alone in one location and go elsewhere. Usually they will get up even if they were dead tired, and if there is a baby or toddler in the house, I'll come back to find the baby on the floor or the toddler wandering around... which means an older Sim got them out, regardless of whether the youngling was sleeping or not.
-- Can I make my Sim stop aging or keep them from aging up to the next age bracket?
Yes, it's in the main game options (Start button) under Options. You can uncheck the Enable Aging button, then hit X to save and exit (be sure you hit X and not some other button!). See the question/answer below about birthday cakes and aging up if you want to make Sims reach a new age bracket while aging is turned off. Seriously, it's important. Go look.
-- My Criminal Sim won't go to work! The "Go to Work" button is greyed out, the car pool doesn't show up, and walking up to the building and clicking it doesn't give the option to go to work. It also doesn't seem to be affecting if he/she will get fired or not?
This happened to my criminal guy at a fairly high level, and since there is no edit town option I wasn't sure he'd ever get to work again. The solution given for the PC version was to delete a possible invisible wall in front of the criminal building door. I fixed it by choosing the "Retire" option, which sent him over to the building, and he went into the door like he should and disappeared like normal (going to work / shopping). The dialogue came up to say he'd been given an offer of $___ to retire and asked if I wanted to do this or not. I cancelled it (did not retire), then sent him back home. The next work day, the car pool message came up again like it should (it hadn't been for ages plus he would not come home after work on his own for several days in a row before the bad bug happened). He was able to go to work from then on.
This happened again to a non-Elder character who was not old enough to retire. After his strange three day weekend (the extra work day just magically vanished somehow), the carpool arrived as usual.
- My sim got stuck and won't move, he was in the way of another Sim I have control over.
I had this happen with one character making the bed while the other one wanted to, and there was only a 1-block width space because the character making the bed was right by the wall. I cancelled everybody's actions but the stuck Sim would not move at all and the cancelled action stayed cancelled and wouldn't clear. The other Sim blocking the way stood there tapping his foot with no actions showing at all (the cancelled action had cleared). I fixed this by having one Sim try to talk to the other (I think the stuck one, I can't remember exactly). This seemed to unglitch them both, and the blocking Sim walked away and the now-unstuck Sim followed him.
- My Sim wants to "Clean Entire House" but when I try this, he just stands where he is and shouts about not being able to get to something like he's blocked from it. I can't find anything messy in the house!
Did you put a dirty item into Storage using Buy/Build mode? I had this happen when I stored an unmade bed and realized what the problem was on my own after fruitless searches giving answers that were only useful in the PC version (sledgehammer blank areas of grass in the yard and something invisible might sell and "vanish" properly). I got the bed back out of Storage and stuck it in the yard and had the Sim go over and make it. He got his wish points and I put the bed back in Storage.
- I can't age my Sim with a birthday cake!
Firstly, you can only use one birthday cake per Sim in the 360 version (online search brought me to this via someone else's statement and gameplay appears to confirm it). This applies to any age bracket that can age up: Baby, Toddler, Child, Teenager, Young Adult, and Adult. Note that in the PC version you can use the birthday cake on the same Sim as many times as you want, but you may have to wait a day between uses.
If the problem is trying to get the cake out of inventory, you have to do it from Buy/Build mode. Select Buy, then Family Inventory and look in the Sim tab for the cake. You can select it from there and then place it on a table. And yes, cakes do get old and can't be used once they are spoiled (but they can be cleaned up). If a cake stays in inventory and spoils, a Sim will throw it out (or well, my Neat Sim did by default, it may be a selectable option once it has spoiled, or just get it out in Build/Buy mode and stick it on a table and make a Sim clean it up).
If you have already used the cake once on a Sim you want to age up again and have aging turned off in the main game options, the only way to age up them up is to do it naturally, with aging on. If you can do this while keeping other Sims in the age brackets you want to keep them in (they won't hit their birthdays first), then go for it. Turn Lifespan to Brief to make it faster, I'd recommend keeping a backup saved game just in case things go wrong. If this is not an option because one or more other Sims is going to hit their birthday(s) first, keep reading.
Aging up one Sim without aging up others who are near their birthdays gets trickier and you have a lot of work ahead of you... unless you can already make Ambrosia, including having all the right ingredients. If that is the case, then make it and feed it to the Sims who you want to stay in their age brackets if they already have too much time on the aging bar. Now turn aging on / set lifespan to Brief to make things faster if you want. If you have to feed the "non-aging" Sims Ambrosia at a later point because they are in a young age bracket with fast lifespan, do so. Have the Sim you want to age up do so, then turn aging back off once they've hit the desired age bracket.
Don't have Ambrosia or don't know how to make it? See the next question/answer.
- How do I make Ambrosia? Where do I get Life Fruit? Where do I get Deathfish?
Ambrosia requires Life Fruit and Deathfish, and brings a Sim back to life or resets their age days back to zero on their current age bracket (there is no way to age down a Sim into a previous age bracket). Most of the credit for the following info goes to a Yahoo answer by Goddess which can be found here. You need:
Cooking skill 10, buy/read Ambrosia recipe.
Gardening skill 7.
Fishing skill.
Cooking and Gardening can both be levelled to what you need (and/or max level) by reading books if you don't want to do it by cooking things and planting stuff. FYI, a sprinkler can be found under Build/Buy -> Buy -> Appliances -> Misc Appliances and can be tinkered to auto-water by a Sim with high level in Handiness. Cooking can also be learned by watching the cooking channel after skill level 2 if your Handiness Sim has upgraded the television to show more channels. Fishing skill you will be levelling anyways while doing this if you haven't gotten it up previously.
For fishing: Buy some cheese, say 10 per fishing trip or more if you don't care about them possibly spoiling. Note that fish themselves definitely spoil if kept in inventory for too long. Find a fishing spot, they're marked on the map with a blue fishhook symbol and usually you should see fish jumping out of the water when you arrive. Fish right on the spot with the jumping fish. At first you can't use bait, you need skill level 2. Once you hit 2, stop fishing and fish again, "Choose Bait" and pick one of the cheeses.
Cheese will catch Alley Catfish, and at skill level 5 you can use fish as bait. Once you can do so, use the Alley Catfish as bait, and catch Angelfish. You may end up catching other fish too but just keep trying, higher skill level helps for getting the better fish. Use the Angelfish as bait to catch Deathfish in the water right by the Catacombs/Graveyard (which is near the Criminal career building / Theater) from 12am-5am. You can also supposedly catch Vampirefish at that location during the same time.
Life Fruit: You need Gardening skill 7 for this. It is a seed of Special variety found randomly lying around on the ground. You can also get it from Science career level 9. If you have the Collector item, it's a lot easier to find seeds. I don't have the Collector and have no interest in trying to add another Sim to the household and slogging through Science, so the other option is to run around town and the residential areas and look for seeds on the ground. The most highly recommended place seems to be the Catacombs/Graveyard. I've had better luck near the water at the Moonlight Falls Fishing Hole (top-right corner of the map). Seek ye as many Special seeds as you can find, plant them and cross your fingers. You can also get Flame Fruit this way, which is required for angel food cake, and Deathflowers which are handy to keep in inventory in case a character dies, as they will trade it to the Grim Reaper for resurrection.
I'm not sure if there is a definite ratio for the odds of what kind of Special plant you will end up with, but here's my results for a round of nine Special seeds and what they ended up growing:
Deathflower: 5
Life Fruit: 2
Flame Fruit: 2
If that's anything hard-coded into the game then it seems Deathflowers are more likely to be the end result while the other two are more rare. As soon as you have harvested Life Fruit and Flame Fruit, remember that you can replant them to create more. Forget tromping around crossing your fingers for mystery seeds from that point onwards! Also, remember that if you move to a new lot, take everything out of the fridge and put it in main Sim inventory (and your books out of the bookshelf storage) or you will lose all that work when moving even if you take your furniture with you.
-- How do I make my child Evil? They were born or adopted after I started the game.
This is for the wish "See (child) Become Evil." This partly applies to the Genius wishes or any others that may be out there (I imagine maxing out the block puzzle toy might give Genius but I don't know). If you do well enough raising the child at Toddler, Child, and/or Teen stage, you get to pick the next trait at their birthday. Cha-ching! Instant trait acquired. In the case of Evil specifically, I was told via Yahoo answers that having one evil parent will give the child the Evil social interaction options. Choose to do a bunch of those to some random stranger while the child is growing up and the odds are good they'll be Evil if you can't pick their next trait. (I picked Evil when my Sim turned Child and Genius when she turned Teen so I can't confirm this but it's worth a try for anyone having trouble managing the kid well enough to pick traits or for skipping the grindwork of training/school.)
-- There's a plate or bowl stuck to my Sim's hand!
Select your Sim and the option for whatever food it was should be listed along with your Sim's name. Choose the food and put it in inventory. Go into Build/Buy mode and place the plate on the floor, then go back to normal mode and have the Sim clean it up.
-- My game stays on the loading screen after choosing a saved game to continue. It was just working, I don't think it's my game disk.
If your XBox is hooked up to the internet, turn the console off and disconnect the network cable (internet). Turn the console back on and load up the game and (hopefully) play as normal. I found this solution elsewhere and it worked for me. It's also a good way to stop repeated error messages about being unable to contact the EA servers, which I have had happen in the middle of playing (you'll want to save your game, exit completely out to the XBox dashboard, disconnect the internet, and restart Sims).
-- Having a ghost Sim in a part of town that isn't the same section as other player Sims, and returning the ghost to the Netherworld bugs out the game really badly.
This one is actually worth doing just for the lulz, but remember to save first. I had my ghost Sim over in the graveyard attempting to put his gravestone there (didn't work, must be a PC version thing). I had two other living Sims back at home. I told the ghost Sim to return to the Netherworld and he did, and then one of my other Sims was selected to be the current Sim. I got the message about them being in another part of town and did I want to go where they were, and picked "No" by accident so I was still looking at the graveyard. I hit Y to switch to the other Sim which I thought would give me that choice of going back home again.
Instead, the camera zoomed over lots of grass and trees and arrived in my Home neighborhood... but all the houses had really messed up textures and no ability to interact with the doors or go inside them, plus it was no longer my custom made house but the old default starter home. I didn't try to find any way to fix it (like see if I could use the Town Map to go to another part of the map and come back) since I had a saved game from right before saying bye-bye to mister ghost. Next time I play, I'll wax somebody and see if I can duplicate the bug / see if the Town Map will then fix it again and if my proper house is there or not.
One thing this does imply is that the 360 version has some kind of basic map with extremely basic buildings running at all times no matter what part of town you're in. I bet this effects the obnoxious build limit... in that, we could build more if the neighborhood maps actually ended past where you can't see anymore. Maybe it helps with load times between areas... but considering my custom house wasn't even there anymore and there didn't appear to be furniture or anything like that in the mis-textured houses (although there was one guy running around outside doing his own thing)... it's debatable.
I'm editing this and adding to it as I progress, since this game has a lot of weird issues, not just gameplay mysteries. Thanks for releasing an incomplete product, EA... again.
-- How do I control my Sim directly in Sims 3 for XBox 360?
You can't. This surprised me too, as I was so used to it from Sims 1 and 2 for the 360. Apparently, that method of direct control is console only and the PC versions have always been what Sims 3 is now. You direct the Sims with the green beam of light, cueing up tasks for them like you had the option to do in the other console games but this time it is the only control method. You get used to it, but I do still miss running around with the actual Sim, especially as the camera controls in Sims 3 can be a bit wonky (annoying when searching the ground for anything or trying to zoom in on something).
Also take note that your Sims are completely stupid when you leave them alone in one location and go elsewhere. Usually they will get up even if they were dead tired, and if there is a baby or toddler in the house, I'll come back to find the baby on the floor or the toddler wandering around... which means an older Sim got them out, regardless of whether the youngling was sleeping or not.
-- Can I make my Sim stop aging or keep them from aging up to the next age bracket?
Yes, it's in the main game options (Start button) under Options. You can uncheck the Enable Aging button, then hit X to save and exit (be sure you hit X and not some other button!). See the question/answer below about birthday cakes and aging up if you want to make Sims reach a new age bracket while aging is turned off. Seriously, it's important. Go look.
-- My Criminal Sim won't go to work! The "Go to Work" button is greyed out, the car pool doesn't show up, and walking up to the building and clicking it doesn't give the option to go to work. It also doesn't seem to be affecting if he/she will get fired or not?
This happened to my criminal guy at a fairly high level, and since there is no edit town option I wasn't sure he'd ever get to work again. The solution given for the PC version was to delete a possible invisible wall in front of the criminal building door. I fixed it by choosing the "Retire" option, which sent him over to the building, and he went into the door like he should and disappeared like normal (going to work / shopping). The dialogue came up to say he'd been given an offer of $___ to retire and asked if I wanted to do this or not. I cancelled it (did not retire), then sent him back home. The next work day, the car pool message came up again like it should (it hadn't been for ages plus he would not come home after work on his own for several days in a row before the bad bug happened). He was able to go to work from then on.
This happened again to a non-Elder character who was not old enough to retire. After his strange three day weekend (the extra work day just magically vanished somehow), the carpool arrived as usual.
- My sim got stuck and won't move, he was in the way of another Sim I have control over.
I had this happen with one character making the bed while the other one wanted to, and there was only a 1-block width space because the character making the bed was right by the wall. I cancelled everybody's actions but the stuck Sim would not move at all and the cancelled action stayed cancelled and wouldn't clear. The other Sim blocking the way stood there tapping his foot with no actions showing at all (the cancelled action had cleared). I fixed this by having one Sim try to talk to the other (I think the stuck one, I can't remember exactly). This seemed to unglitch them both, and the blocking Sim walked away and the now-unstuck Sim followed him.
- My Sim wants to "Clean Entire House" but when I try this, he just stands where he is and shouts about not being able to get to something like he's blocked from it. I can't find anything messy in the house!
Did you put a dirty item into Storage using Buy/Build mode? I had this happen when I stored an unmade bed and realized what the problem was on my own after fruitless searches giving answers that were only useful in the PC version (sledgehammer blank areas of grass in the yard and something invisible might sell and "vanish" properly). I got the bed back out of Storage and stuck it in the yard and had the Sim go over and make it. He got his wish points and I put the bed back in Storage.
- I can't age my Sim with a birthday cake!
Firstly, you can only use one birthday cake per Sim in the 360 version (online search brought me to this via someone else's statement and gameplay appears to confirm it). This applies to any age bracket that can age up: Baby, Toddler, Child, Teenager, Young Adult, and Adult. Note that in the PC version you can use the birthday cake on the same Sim as many times as you want, but you may have to wait a day between uses.
If the problem is trying to get the cake out of inventory, you have to do it from Buy/Build mode. Select Buy, then Family Inventory and look in the Sim tab for the cake. You can select it from there and then place it on a table. And yes, cakes do get old and can't be used once they are spoiled (but they can be cleaned up). If a cake stays in inventory and spoils, a Sim will throw it out (or well, my Neat Sim did by default, it may be a selectable option once it has spoiled, or just get it out in Build/Buy mode and stick it on a table and make a Sim clean it up).
If you have already used the cake once on a Sim you want to age up again and have aging turned off in the main game options, the only way to age up them up is to do it naturally, with aging on. If you can do this while keeping other Sims in the age brackets you want to keep them in (they won't hit their birthdays first), then go for it. Turn Lifespan to Brief to make it faster, I'd recommend keeping a backup saved game just in case things go wrong. If this is not an option because one or more other Sims is going to hit their birthday(s) first, keep reading.
Aging up one Sim without aging up others who are near their birthdays gets trickier and you have a lot of work ahead of you... unless you can already make Ambrosia, including having all the right ingredients. If that is the case, then make it and feed it to the Sims who you want to stay in their age brackets if they already have too much time on the aging bar. Now turn aging on / set lifespan to Brief to make things faster if you want. If you have to feed the "non-aging" Sims Ambrosia at a later point because they are in a young age bracket with fast lifespan, do so. Have the Sim you want to age up do so, then turn aging back off once they've hit the desired age bracket.
Don't have Ambrosia or don't know how to make it? See the next question/answer.
- How do I make Ambrosia? Where do I get Life Fruit? Where do I get Deathfish?
Ambrosia requires Life Fruit and Deathfish, and brings a Sim back to life or resets their age days back to zero on their current age bracket (there is no way to age down a Sim into a previous age bracket). Most of the credit for the following info goes to a Yahoo answer by Goddess which can be found here. You need:
Cooking skill 10, buy/read Ambrosia recipe.
Gardening skill 7.
Fishing skill.
Cooking and Gardening can both be levelled to what you need (and/or max level) by reading books if you don't want to do it by cooking things and planting stuff. FYI, a sprinkler can be found under Build/Buy -> Buy -> Appliances -> Misc Appliances and can be tinkered to auto-water by a Sim with high level in Handiness. Cooking can also be learned by watching the cooking channel after skill level 2 if your Handiness Sim has upgraded the television to show more channels. Fishing skill you will be levelling anyways while doing this if you haven't gotten it up previously.
For fishing: Buy some cheese, say 10 per fishing trip or more if you don't care about them possibly spoiling. Note that fish themselves definitely spoil if kept in inventory for too long. Find a fishing spot, they're marked on the map with a blue fishhook symbol and usually you should see fish jumping out of the water when you arrive. Fish right on the spot with the jumping fish. At first you can't use bait, you need skill level 2. Once you hit 2, stop fishing and fish again, "Choose Bait" and pick one of the cheeses.
Cheese will catch Alley Catfish, and at skill level 5 you can use fish as bait. Once you can do so, use the Alley Catfish as bait, and catch Angelfish. You may end up catching other fish too but just keep trying, higher skill level helps for getting the better fish. Use the Angelfish as bait to catch Deathfish in the water right by the Catacombs/Graveyard (which is near the Criminal career building / Theater) from 12am-5am. You can also supposedly catch Vampirefish at that location during the same time.
Life Fruit: You need Gardening skill 7 for this. It is a seed of Special variety found randomly lying around on the ground. You can also get it from Science career level 9. If you have the Collector item, it's a lot easier to find seeds. I don't have the Collector and have no interest in trying to add another Sim to the household and slogging through Science, so the other option is to run around town and the residential areas and look for seeds on the ground. The most highly recommended place seems to be the Catacombs/Graveyard. I've had better luck near the water at the Moonlight Falls Fishing Hole (top-right corner of the map). Seek ye as many Special seeds as you can find, plant them and cross your fingers. You can also get Flame Fruit this way, which is required for angel food cake, and Deathflowers which are handy to keep in inventory in case a character dies, as they will trade it to the Grim Reaper for resurrection.
I'm not sure if there is a definite ratio for the odds of what kind of Special plant you will end up with, but here's my results for a round of nine Special seeds and what they ended up growing:
Deathflower: 5
Life Fruit: 2
Flame Fruit: 2
If that's anything hard-coded into the game then it seems Deathflowers are more likely to be the end result while the other two are more rare. As soon as you have harvested Life Fruit and Flame Fruit, remember that you can replant them to create more. Forget tromping around crossing your fingers for mystery seeds from that point onwards! Also, remember that if you move to a new lot, take everything out of the fridge and put it in main Sim inventory (and your books out of the bookshelf storage) or you will lose all that work when moving even if you take your furniture with you.
-- How do I make my child Evil? They were born or adopted after I started the game.
This is for the wish "See (child) Become Evil." This partly applies to the Genius wishes or any others that may be out there (I imagine maxing out the block puzzle toy might give Genius but I don't know). If you do well enough raising the child at Toddler, Child, and/or Teen stage, you get to pick the next trait at their birthday. Cha-ching! Instant trait acquired. In the case of Evil specifically, I was told via Yahoo answers that having one evil parent will give the child the Evil social interaction options. Choose to do a bunch of those to some random stranger while the child is growing up and the odds are good they'll be Evil if you can't pick their next trait. (I picked Evil when my Sim turned Child and Genius when she turned Teen so I can't confirm this but it's worth a try for anyone having trouble managing the kid well enough to pick traits or for skipping the grindwork of training/school.)
-- There's a plate or bowl stuck to my Sim's hand!
Select your Sim and the option for whatever food it was should be listed along with your Sim's name. Choose the food and put it in inventory. Go into Build/Buy mode and place the plate on the floor, then go back to normal mode and have the Sim clean it up.
-- My game stays on the loading screen after choosing a saved game to continue. It was just working, I don't think it's my game disk.
If your XBox is hooked up to the internet, turn the console off and disconnect the network cable (internet). Turn the console back on and load up the game and (hopefully) play as normal. I found this solution elsewhere and it worked for me. It's also a good way to stop repeated error messages about being unable to contact the EA servers, which I have had happen in the middle of playing (you'll want to save your game, exit completely out to the XBox dashboard, disconnect the internet, and restart Sims).
-- Having a ghost Sim in a part of town that isn't the same section as other player Sims, and returning the ghost to the Netherworld bugs out the game really badly.
This one is actually worth doing just for the lulz, but remember to save first. I had my ghost Sim over in the graveyard attempting to put his gravestone there (didn't work, must be a PC version thing). I had two other living Sims back at home. I told the ghost Sim to return to the Netherworld and he did, and then one of my other Sims was selected to be the current Sim. I got the message about them being in another part of town and did I want to go where they were, and picked "No" by accident so I was still looking at the graveyard. I hit Y to switch to the other Sim which I thought would give me that choice of going back home again.
Instead, the camera zoomed over lots of grass and trees and arrived in my Home neighborhood... but all the houses had really messed up textures and no ability to interact with the doors or go inside them, plus it was no longer my custom made house but the old default starter home. I didn't try to find any way to fix it (like see if I could use the Town Map to go to another part of the map and come back) since I had a saved game from right before saying bye-bye to mister ghost. Next time I play, I'll wax somebody and see if I can duplicate the bug / see if the Town Map will then fix it again and if my proper house is there or not.
One thing this does imply is that the 360 version has some kind of basic map with extremely basic buildings running at all times no matter what part of town you're in. I bet this effects the obnoxious build limit... in that, we could build more if the neighborhood maps actually ended past where you can't see anymore. Maybe it helps with load times between areas... but considering my custom house wasn't even there anymore and there didn't appear to be furniture or anything like that in the mis-textured houses (although there was one guy running around outside doing his own thing)... it's debatable.
I'm editing this and adding to it as I progress, since this game has a lot of weird issues, not just gameplay mysteries. Thanks for releasing an incomplete product, EA... again.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The Idiot's Guide To Starting A Religion
1. Pick something you like.
Example: BUNNIES!
2. Very good. Now, make it unique with an added word or two, or more specific if it is a general concept. If the thing/person/whatever is already very specific, skip this step.
Example: Uhhh... Bunny... Snow Bunny. YES.
3. Excellent. Now, pick a current major holiday to overwrite with an idea based on your religious concept. Rename the holiday and explain what it should honor from now on. Bonus points if you can do several major holidays.
Example: Hmmmmm gee that's easy. Easter! But now it's Snow Bunny Day, the day the Snow Bunny gives us all yummy treats!
4. Make up a bad consequence for not believing in your religion. Keep in mind that the worse it is, the more likely people will convert.
Example: Uhmm... if you don't believe, you'll get really sick like you've eaten tooo much Snow Bunny Day candy. Also, Snow Bunny will cry.
5. Now start a website or give that homeless guy downtown a bottle of vodka and a snickers. You know... that guy. No, not him, he's cool... the other one. It only takes one crazy-head to start a following. Congratulations, you have formed a religion! Be sure to shoehorn in your favorite political affiliation / corporate sponsor / soda brand if you actually gain notoriety. A code of ethics and values for your religion is optional but recommended; remember that should you write it down or present it in some way, you are in no way required to follow it to the letter. Be sure to insist that others do, on pain of whatever point 4 was.
Example: YAAAY! Wait... I can still make comments? Sweeet. I umm... I'm bored, I'm gonna go play with Mr. Snow Bunny now. We're the best of friends, we talk allllll the time. Don't we, Mr. Snow Bunny? ^___^
Example: BUNNIES!
2. Very good. Now, make it unique with an added word or two, or more specific if it is a general concept. If the thing/person/whatever is already very specific, skip this step.
Example: Uhhh... Bunny... Snow Bunny. YES.
3. Excellent. Now, pick a current major holiday to overwrite with an idea based on your religious concept. Rename the holiday and explain what it should honor from now on. Bonus points if you can do several major holidays.
Example: Hmmmmm gee that's easy. Easter! But now it's Snow Bunny Day, the day the Snow Bunny gives us all yummy treats!
4. Make up a bad consequence for not believing in your religion. Keep in mind that the worse it is, the more likely people will convert.
Example: Uhmm... if you don't believe, you'll get really sick like you've eaten tooo much Snow Bunny Day candy. Also, Snow Bunny will cry.
5. Now start a website or give that homeless guy downtown a bottle of vodka and a snickers. You know... that guy. No, not him, he's cool... the other one. It only takes one crazy-head to start a following. Congratulations, you have formed a religion! Be sure to shoehorn in your favorite political affiliation / corporate sponsor / soda brand if you actually gain notoriety. A code of ethics and values for your religion is optional but recommended; remember that should you write it down or present it in some way, you are in no way required to follow it to the letter. Be sure to insist that others do, on pain of whatever point 4 was.
Example: YAAAY! Wait... I can still make comments? Sweeet. I umm... I'm bored, I'm gonna go play with Mr. Snow Bunny now. We're the best of friends, we talk allllll the time. Don't we, Mr. Snow Bunny? ^___^
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
My letter to President Obama
This is in relation to the previous blog post, and was sent via the White House's contact home page.
Dear President Obama,
I've found a very odd stipulation related to Social Security disability rules and regulations, and am quite confused. The good news is, I have finally won a five year old disability case, and am now eligible for Medicare. The bad news is... that I will be penalized for having more than $2000 in my bank account(s) after the six month grace period ends for each of the three back-payment checks. The final check will be quite large.
I don't understand this. I was literally the first person ever to ask my SSA caseworker if there is a way to *save* the money. The only legal ways are either investing the money in a car (the first of which will not count against me), or opening a special disabilities fund, which I cannot access and must do something like up and die before someone *else* can access it. I checked with my bank, and a basic savings account would net me a fairly unimpressive total of $110 a year in interest on $10,000, which means $220 on $20,000. These are the sorts of amounts I will have to work with when the time comes. Right now I can't handle a car, let alone maintain or insure it.
I would happily pay tax on the bank interest, but in the meantime I would be losing over $1,000 a year in SSI payments and also no longer receive Medicaid. Yes, Medicaid is one of the worst insurance providers (in my experience), but it is best to have as much coverage as possible when one's body is at war with itself. I have a housing voucher which makes rent much more doable, but I live on an income notably below the poverty line and cannot work. A decent amount of money squared away would be a smart choice, right?
Instead, I am being encouraged by the system to spend it all. Yes, there is a lot of "stuff" I could buy. I can spend money just as easily as the next person. But I want to be fiscally smarter than that, and it feels very much like the government would punish me for doing so. Is the idea this: that I am disabled, and thus should be poor my entire life? That is really the only impression I'm left with.
I know you and your staff are busy, but I hope this lets you know just how messed up the system is even on this rung of the ladder, wherever it lies in the social and political hierarchy. I hope you can do something about it, because there can be no valid reasoning behind it. Thank you for your time, whoever is actually reading this, and best of luck should you try to take on this cause.
It was signed "Sincerely," and then my legal name. Good luck, little digital emissary.
Edit: In the end, all I got back was a keyword-generated email about the Obama Administration needing more support in general from lawmakers in relation to disability laws and services. It's so great to know my government cares about me enough to actually read my email and notice that was not at all what I wrote about.
Dear President Obama,
I've found a very odd stipulation related to Social Security disability rules and regulations, and am quite confused. The good news is, I have finally won a five year old disability case, and am now eligible for Medicare. The bad news is... that I will be penalized for having more than $2000 in my bank account(s) after the six month grace period ends for each of the three back-payment checks. The final check will be quite large.
I don't understand this. I was literally the first person ever to ask my SSA caseworker if there is a way to *save* the money. The only legal ways are either investing the money in a car (the first of which will not count against me), or opening a special disabilities fund, which I cannot access and must do something like up and die before someone *else* can access it. I checked with my bank, and a basic savings account would net me a fairly unimpressive total of $110 a year in interest on $10,000, which means $220 on $20,000. These are the sorts of amounts I will have to work with when the time comes. Right now I can't handle a car, let alone maintain or insure it.
I would happily pay tax on the bank interest, but in the meantime I would be losing over $1,000 a year in SSI payments and also no longer receive Medicaid. Yes, Medicaid is one of the worst insurance providers (in my experience), but it is best to have as much coverage as possible when one's body is at war with itself. I have a housing voucher which makes rent much more doable, but I live on an income notably below the poverty line and cannot work. A decent amount of money squared away would be a smart choice, right?
Instead, I am being encouraged by the system to spend it all. Yes, there is a lot of "stuff" I could buy. I can spend money just as easily as the next person. But I want to be fiscally smarter than that, and it feels very much like the government would punish me for doing so. Is the idea this: that I am disabled, and thus should be poor my entire life? That is really the only impression I'm left with.
I know you and your staff are busy, but I hope this lets you know just how messed up the system is even on this rung of the ladder, wherever it lies in the social and political hierarchy. I hope you can do something about it, because there can be no valid reasoning behind it. Thank you for your time, whoever is actually reading this, and best of luck should you try to take on this cause.
It was signed "Sincerely," and then my legal name. Good luck, little digital emissary.
Edit: In the end, all I got back was a keyword-generated email about the Obama Administration needing more support in general from lawmakers in relation to disability laws and services. It's so great to know my government cares about me enough to actually read my email and notice that was not at all what I wrote about.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Nostalgia Critic's review of The Room
Nostalgia Critic aka "That Guy With The Glasses" had to take a review down recently due to the director/actor/writer suing for copyright infringement. The review was of The Room and that it followed the rules of fair use is entirely beside the point. The real reason it got taken down was that the boneheaded owner of the footage couldn't stand someone calling his "art" what it truly was: crap.
It is not a comedy. It is not even satire on bad acting. It is absolutely awful. And yet, at the end of the review, NC still recommended people go see the thing! This movie made money off NC's review, as I'm sure a few people picked it up before the retardation hit. Now, however, they are going to get a whole lot of bad press without the monetary return often expected of such things. Anything else would be uncivilized.
Bad call, director/actor/writer/the-world-does-not-revolve-around-your-bad-acting. But then the first bad call was putting that abomination on film to begin with.
Watch NC's epic video response to the idiocy at his site.
It is not a comedy. It is not even satire on bad acting. It is absolutely awful. And yet, at the end of the review, NC still recommended people go see the thing! This movie made money off NC's review, as I'm sure a few people picked it up before the retardation hit. Now, however, they are going to get a whole lot of bad press without the monetary return often expected of such things. Anything else would be uncivilized.
Bad call, director/actor/writer/the-world-does-not-revolve-around-your-bad-acting. But then the first bad call was putting that abomination on film to begin with.
Watch NC's epic video response to the idiocy at his site.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Gaming and Girls, by an actual girl... maybe.
Via the Gamer Girls group at The Escapist Forums, I found an opinion column article about video games and women. The original article can be found in full here and is called "The Geeker Sex", by Noah Falstein. It's a bit dated, 1997 and all, but I think the mindset remains today and I'm just going to pick at bits of what he said. Note that the article was written by a man, and it shows, even though he actually seems to be trying to take a positive, pro-girl stance on the issue. He still just doesn't get it. If he happens to see this, hopefully by now he's come to see the light.
"...that game appealed to far fewer women than the asexual Tetris, which would to traditional thinking have been predicted to be a male-oriented game because of its dependence on spatial perception."
Wow, just wow. He's either being sarcastic, or the attempted "pro-girl" stance isn't quite so pro-girl.
"In the early LucasArts days we were surprised that the Indiana Jones games had more women playing them than the Monkey Island comedy games, which on the surface seemed more gender-neutral than the macho Indy image. It makes sense when you consider that Indiana Jones movies have appealed to both men and women, and compelling stories with strong female characters are big draws in books and movies as well."
No, it's because it had Indiana Jones in it, and he's cute. Sure, he's more than that, being smart and roguish and all that... but let's face it. He's drop-dead gorgeous.
Sometimes it is not hard to figure women out at all. I've had a blast with Vin Diesel's Wheelman because it has Vin Diesel in it and he's my hero. He's absolute studmuffin beefcake and a brilliant actor. However, I also like Need For Speed: Most Wanted, which has nothing to do with Vin Diesel (though I played through the game as "Riddick" which is more of an in-my-head thing than remotely related to the actual game "plot", but whatever). I played NFS:MW first; Wheelman did not lead me into the genre, but the improvements to the genre helped sell Wheelman to me as a bonus on top of the whole "OMG IT'S VIN" thing.
Wheelman and NFS:MW are both racing games, a genre I used to hate but have started to like now that the games aren't clunky and can get into all kinds of fun customization aspects. I've even started to learn about car parts and can recognize some high-end brand names thanks to the games. Let's face it, cars are not a girly thing, and I don't mean "Ooooh he has a cute car" but I mean "Yeah it has x rims and y fuel exhaust system." And I am not a girly girl, but cars used to be a "Uh, you drive it down the road" thing to me, and nothing else beyond the standard "Oh and that one is cooool looking." So in the end, a couple of guy-guy games have appealed to me, a female at least by genetics and biology, and have inspired me to become interested in other guy-guy things.
I seriously don't care about trying to argue that "Oh, but guy-guy things can be girl things too!" I'm quite happy to say I like guy stuff. But then, I actually dislike being a girl very much, so that's a whole other card on my table the average girl might not have. I'm noticing it's a trend amongst my gamer girl friends, though... even if we may have a hello kitty collection or 50 shades of nail polish, we're not happy with the gender nature has given us and many of our tastes show it.
In the end, video games on the market as they stand now, especially big titles, attract gamers. A girl gamer is going to want to frag hell out of something (if she likes that style of game, as I do) as much as a guy is. On the same note, a girl gamer is going to love spending 80+ hours in an RPG-adventure type game as much as a guy is (if he likes that style of game). It would be sexist of me to say "guys prefer fragfests over something with more story" just as much as it would be sexist of anyone else to say "girls prefer story and aren't interested in blowing somebody's kneecaps off purely for the splatter-factor."
Frag on, ladies, frag on. Let's prove to the video game market that we love the titles out there as much as anyone else, or hate them for the same reasons as anyone else (DRM, shoddy gameplay, bad voice acting, bugs, sparkly vampires...). Oh, one moment, I need to turn on Pokémon SoulSliver and see if my berries can be harvested yet...
"...that game appealed to far fewer women than the asexual Tetris, which would to traditional thinking have been predicted to be a male-oriented game because of its dependence on spatial perception."
Wow, just wow. He's either being sarcastic, or the attempted "pro-girl" stance isn't quite so pro-girl.
"In the early LucasArts days we were surprised that the Indiana Jones games had more women playing them than the Monkey Island comedy games, which on the surface seemed more gender-neutral than the macho Indy image. It makes sense when you consider that Indiana Jones movies have appealed to both men and women, and compelling stories with strong female characters are big draws in books and movies as well."
No, it's because it had Indiana Jones in it, and he's cute. Sure, he's more than that, being smart and roguish and all that... but let's face it. He's drop-dead gorgeous.
Sometimes it is not hard to figure women out at all. I've had a blast with Vin Diesel's Wheelman because it has Vin Diesel in it and he's my hero. He's absolute studmuffin beefcake and a brilliant actor. However, I also like Need For Speed: Most Wanted, which has nothing to do with Vin Diesel (though I played through the game as "Riddick" which is more of an in-my-head thing than remotely related to the actual game "plot", but whatever). I played NFS:MW first; Wheelman did not lead me into the genre, but the improvements to the genre helped sell Wheelman to me as a bonus on top of the whole "OMG IT'S VIN" thing.
Wheelman and NFS:MW are both racing games, a genre I used to hate but have started to like now that the games aren't clunky and can get into all kinds of fun customization aspects. I've even started to learn about car parts and can recognize some high-end brand names thanks to the games. Let's face it, cars are not a girly thing, and I don't mean "Ooooh he has a cute car" but I mean "Yeah it has x rims and y fuel exhaust system." And I am not a girly girl, but cars used to be a "Uh, you drive it down the road" thing to me, and nothing else beyond the standard "Oh and that one is cooool looking." So in the end, a couple of guy-guy games have appealed to me, a female at least by genetics and biology, and have inspired me to become interested in other guy-guy things.
I seriously don't care about trying to argue that "Oh, but guy-guy things can be girl things too!" I'm quite happy to say I like guy stuff. But then, I actually dislike being a girl very much, so that's a whole other card on my table the average girl might not have. I'm noticing it's a trend amongst my gamer girl friends, though... even if we may have a hello kitty collection or 50 shades of nail polish, we're not happy with the gender nature has given us and many of our tastes show it.
In the end, video games on the market as they stand now, especially big titles, attract gamers. A girl gamer is going to want to frag hell out of something (if she likes that style of game, as I do) as much as a guy is. On the same note, a girl gamer is going to love spending 80+ hours in an RPG-adventure type game as much as a guy is (if he likes that style of game). It would be sexist of me to say "guys prefer fragfests over something with more story" just as much as it would be sexist of anyone else to say "girls prefer story and aren't interested in blowing somebody's kneecaps off purely for the splatter-factor."
Frag on, ladies, frag on. Let's prove to the video game market that we love the titles out there as much as anyone else, or hate them for the same reasons as anyone else (DRM, shoddy gameplay, bad voice acting, bugs, sparkly vampires...). Oh, one moment, I need to turn on Pokémon SoulSliver and see if my berries can be harvested yet...
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The future of gaming?
I am noticing an alarming trend in current-generation video game consoles, although for my own part I only own an X-Box 360. Perhaps you have heard of the infamous "pixels of death" from The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena? No? You'll know what I mean if you play it, and if you have, then you know... unless you played it on an HDTV.
On my second play-through of that game, I ran through those parts of the game on an HDTV and noticed that it was no longer a solitary white pixel or two of doom, but an actual recognizable critter. Hmmm... could it be that gaming studios assume the majority of their gamers have upgraded their televisions to something that isn't CRT? Isn't that a bit of an unfair assumption?
My television isn't that old, but it is definitely of the CRT variety. It is not flat-screen, HD, etc. It runs original XBox games just fine, perhaps because the publishers had not made the assumptive leap that everyone would have an almost computer monitor sitting around to play games on. I even spent quite a lot of time reading lore books in Morrowind right on the screen of my not-HDTV.
Now, I have to get up, walk over and squint at the menus and text in Dragon Age: Origins. This is frustrating as not only is there a lot of text in the game, but even comparing armor gets painfully tedious. I'm really disappointed that gaming companies haven't kept us lower-income gamers in mind, nevermind anyone who paid good money for a television that is now becoming... outdated. I understand that part of what is happening is that game designers are trying to take advantage of higher resolution screens, but in the meantime it seems to leave us little guys out. How many of us, I must wonder, are "the little guys"?
It could be this transition has been going on for longer than I've noticed, but then I'm new to the 360 world. My previous most-current generation console is an original XBox and before that comes... a PS1. But still. Come on, gamer companies. I've seen game ports fail due to graphics issues and such, but to not even be able to properly read what's on the screen? Tsk.
And to close, I must now derail into how much I HEART VIN DIESEL because it's pretty damn obligatory.
On my second play-through of that game, I ran through those parts of the game on an HDTV and noticed that it was no longer a solitary white pixel or two of doom, but an actual recognizable critter. Hmmm... could it be that gaming studios assume the majority of their gamers have upgraded their televisions to something that isn't CRT? Isn't that a bit of an unfair assumption?
My television isn't that old, but it is definitely of the CRT variety. It is not flat-screen, HD, etc. It runs original XBox games just fine, perhaps because the publishers had not made the assumptive leap that everyone would have an almost computer monitor sitting around to play games on. I even spent quite a lot of time reading lore books in Morrowind right on the screen of my not-HDTV.
Now, I have to get up, walk over and squint at the menus and text in Dragon Age: Origins. This is frustrating as not only is there a lot of text in the game, but even comparing armor gets painfully tedious. I'm really disappointed that gaming companies haven't kept us lower-income gamers in mind, nevermind anyone who paid good money for a television that is now becoming... outdated. I understand that part of what is happening is that game designers are trying to take advantage of higher resolution screens, but in the meantime it seems to leave us little guys out. How many of us, I must wonder, are "the little guys"?
It could be this transition has been going on for longer than I've noticed, but then I'm new to the 360 world. My previous most-current generation console is an original XBox and before that comes... a PS1. But still. Come on, gamer companies. I've seen game ports fail due to graphics issues and such, but to not even be able to properly read what's on the screen? Tsk.
And to close, I must now derail into how much I HEART VIN DIESEL because it's pretty damn obligatory.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
What to do, what to do...
I think I just quoted Hoxie...
Anyways, I've swept the blog clean again. I didn't keep up with the review concept, and honestly I just don't care anymore. I like what I like, people like what they like. (Plus, finances are so strained right now it's difficult to do something as simple as go out and see a movie.) So, yes, what to do... besides waste space on the internet.
My LiveJournal doesn't get much attention either, that anyone can actually see anyways. I use it all the time for writing fiction and fanfiction drafts, but those posts stay locked. Only I can see them. Extremely rarely do they end up gracing the wider 'nets because I post that work to deviantArt or y!Gallery when it's finished. That's where 99.98% of my traffic is anyways.
So I'm thinking, if I can find inspiration, little bits of things might end up here. I have a weird way of looking at the world, mostly because the world is so weird to me. Bah, that sounds all "I'm trying to sound important, read my blog! Hurr!" Yegh. I dunno, I guess we'll see.
I'm usually the last person to say anything nice about myself or my works, but eh, I'm working on that. The writing I've done lately has really helped. In the end, I just want to get the stories out where people can read them. If one person likes one story, I am thrilled to death. And I know a lot more people than that have liked my work. It means the world to me that I've entertained someone even briefly, let alone a lot of someones.
I... am not liking the "Save Now" button in this editor mode, though. It needs to stop blinking at me. Heh. Could something that simple make or break the tentative birth of a refurbished blog?
Who knows.
Anyways, I've swept the blog clean again. I didn't keep up with the review concept, and honestly I just don't care anymore. I like what I like, people like what they like. (Plus, finances are so strained right now it's difficult to do something as simple as go out and see a movie.) So, yes, what to do... besides waste space on the internet.
My LiveJournal doesn't get much attention either, that anyone can actually see anyways. I use it all the time for writing fiction and fanfiction drafts, but those posts stay locked. Only I can see them. Extremely rarely do they end up gracing the wider 'nets because I post that work to deviantArt or y!Gallery when it's finished. That's where 99.98% of my traffic is anyways.
So I'm thinking, if I can find inspiration, little bits of things might end up here. I have a weird way of looking at the world, mostly because the world is so weird to me. Bah, that sounds all "I'm trying to sound important, read my blog! Hurr!" Yegh. I dunno, I guess we'll see.
I'm usually the last person to say anything nice about myself or my works, but eh, I'm working on that. The writing I've done lately has really helped. In the end, I just want to get the stories out where people can read them. If one person likes one story, I am thrilled to death. And I know a lot more people than that have liked my work. It means the world to me that I've entertained someone even briefly, let alone a lot of someones.
I... am not liking the "Save Now" button in this editor mode, though. It needs to stop blinking at me. Heh. Could something that simple make or break the tentative birth of a refurbished blog?
Who knows.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
